Cain's Guide- Instigating Roleplay

[CainsTedTalk]

Introduction ​

Welcome back to another exciting issue of Cain's Guide. In this paper I'll be discussing how to instigate Roleplay, a simply topic but sometimes over explained or over complicated. In short, hopefully you'll be able to pull ideas out of this to help you expand on your roleplay and meet some new players. So without further adieu, let's jump right into this.

Jumping Right Into This​

Tick tock tick tock goes the clock, ten minutes, twenty minutes, how long have you been waiting in the tavern? You move your mouse around and see a few other people by themselves, the occasional group at a table. But these ain't yo homies, what do you do? How many times have you experienced this.
Unfortunately this is a rather common occurrence, but there has to be a better way right; right. Starting up a conversation is easier than it sounds, especially in someplace like a tavern, or the park or other social areas.

Jumping right into the tavern scenario, it is too common of a sight to see a dozen or so people in the tavern with nothing going on. The solution to this problem is simple, be the catalyst in your setting. A catalyst by definition is someone or something that causes a reaction, so in roleplay this is the guy who gets the ball moving. Now, in roleplay you can identify two forms of catalysts, the larger and the smaller catalysts respectfully. The larger catalysts are some of our big named players and staff members who contribute outstanding to the roleplay setting and get the ball rolling plot wise. The smaller catalysts however, contribute to simple scenery, sparking up conversation and making idle chat and new relationships. The latter being more common than the prior.

For now, we're going to discuss the smaller catalysts. For our quiet tavern situation, a small catalyst reaction would need to take place in order to start up the roleplay in the area. Now what exactly happens here can be left for creativity, there's a multitude of things than can be employed to start conversations with your imagination as your limit. Including but not limited too:

1. Asking someone if you can sit with them, your new and/or don't know a lot of people.
2. Challenging someone to a drinking game or gambling opportunity.
3. Just sitting down and beginning a random conversation.

These three are pretty basic ideas and some I employ quite frequently on those silent days. However feel free to use your imagination and come up with some unique ways to instigate roleplay with your character in mind. That wraps up this guide, of course theirs plenty to expand upon but I'll save that for now.